Naps are awesome - Juice Fast Day Four

So besides going to church, my favorite thing about Sunday is that I get to take a nap.

For Breakfast I made a Watermelon Cantaloupe Juice. I has, you guessed it, 2 ingredients. Watermelon and Cantaloupe. I used a 2" slice off the watermelon and 1/2 cantaloupe. It made enough for me to have a glass of juice for breakfast before church and one after for lunch.

For dinner I made Limeade. Here is what I used:
1/2 cucumber
1/2 Lime
1 granny smith apple
3 stalks of Kale
2 kiwis
4 small pears

The pears aren't in the picture, since they are growing on my tree outside and I kind of use them as a filler when there isn't enough juice and I want more. Here is a picture of the glass of juice. It was pretty good.

Pioneer Day Pasta Salad

I am going to a Pioneer day celebration at the church tonight. I signed up a few weeks ago to make Pasta Salad. So here is my creation. I didn't have a recipe, so I just went with my gut and used what I had on hand. Of course I didn't have enough of the mini bow tie pasta, so I used some elbow noodles as well. All of the pasta is egg free.

Ingredients:1 lb Pasta, any shape
3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 lb broccoli florets
1 can of small pitted black olives, cut in half

Heat water until boiling, add pasta. I used elbow and mini bow tie. Since the elbow needed more cook time I added them first. 2 minutes later I added the bow ties. 2 minutes after that I added the carrots. 2 minutes later I added the broccoli for a total cook time of 9 minutes. Place in a bowl with chopped olives and mix with dressing.

Dressing:
Fresh basil
Extra virgin Olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
balsamic vinegar

Place all ingredients and mix until smooth, Pour over the pasta and refridgerate. Serve chilled.

All before 1pm - Juice Fast - Day Three

I slept in this morning. I woke up at 10 am :) It has been a while since I have been able to do that and my 5:30 am wake-up calls have been taking their toll on me. So after getting up, I went to the bank to get some cash. Then I went to the Library to return some books and get even more. I took seven books back, but managed to come out with 18. Then off to the flea market for some produce.

Since the juice fast will last until Saturday next week I only got stuff I can juice. I was hard to pass up the beautiful bananas and avacados, but they won't juice so I left them there. Here is what I got:

Total spent - $20

2 Cantaloupes - $3 5 Limes - $1 2 Cucumbers - $1 2 Granny Smith Apples - $1 13 Kiwis - $4 4 Tomatoes - $2 7 Plums - $2 5 Peaches - $2 2 bunches of beets - $4

Ok and so for the first juice of the day, yes I left the house without juicing. I made a Watermelon, Plum, Lime and Kiwi Juice. I used a entire lime and it was too much, next time I will do half, so I also added a beet to make it less limey. It worked and the result was a really pretty scarlett juice. Still a little heavy on the lime, but I will deal with that. The pictures were taken before I added the beet.

A few hours later - For Dinner I was going to make a recipe my Mom e-mailed me called Scarlett Beauty Juice. But I read that too much beet juice can make you sick and since I added that to brunch, I am going to have to come up with something else now. Hmmm how about a Kiwi blueberry. Pretty simple 3 kiwis and 3 cups of blueberries. enjoy.

10 minutes later - ok sctach that. It is HOT outside and in 10 minutes I only had a cup of blueberries. New recipe

1 cup blueberries
2 pears
1 granny smith apple
2 kiwis
1 plum
1 peach

The juice was so pretty in the mixing cup before I poured it into the storage container to take with me to church tonight. I took a picture before I poured it for you to see, but didn't realize that the memory card wasn't in my camera and I don't have a cable to get it off the camera. So no pictures for you tonight. Sorry, next time I will be more careful.

Really that's it? Juice Fast - Day Two

Ok so I won't lie to you today was way harder than yesterday. I almost quit like 6 times. I am still hanging in there with the exception of a handful of Kale Chips, no worries recipe to follow. I think that I have had indegestion since 10 am. This has made it hard to stay positive. Especially when the girls at work were supportive of me stopping. Thankfully my parents told me to tough it out.

I weighed myself before starting on Wed night and then again last night before bed and the scale (Wii Fit) said I had lost 1.8 pounds in one day, so that is encouraging. My sister reccomended Zantac for the indigestion, so I am going to have to get some of that. I think I need you guys to pray for me. I know that this is something that I want. I just need to be reminded of that occasionally so thanks for being supportive even if all you do is read the blog and never comment on it.

Ok so for breakfast I did Watermelon Juice again but this time I added a whole cucumber and a handful of blueberries. Maybe a little cucumber wouldn't have been bad but I used an entire massive cucumber, which was like 2 cups of the 1/2 gallon and it was just too over powering.

I made liquid salad for lunch. I think that this may have been the source of my indegestion, not sure really. I used an entire bag of spring mix, a huge cucumber, 2 carrots, 1 small onion, a tomato and a stalk of celery. It was good but way too much onion. Maybe next time I will use 1/8 of a small onion or even leave it out entirely.

So even now my stomach is still really upset. I made some Pear Apple juice and added it to the leftover watermelon cucumber from this morning. I wish I hadn't. It was really good and eventhough there wasn't that much of the cucumber melon juice left, I still tasted the cucumber.

Ok so for the Kale Chips.

Ingredients:
1 bunch of kale washed, cut into bite sized pieces and dried.
olive oil
salt and pepper.

mix the kale, oil, salt and pepper together on a cookie sheet lined with parchment.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. I didn't think this was enough time. So I toook them out at the ten minute mark and then decided to put them back in, but I had already turned off the oven, so I left them in the oven with it turned off for the rest of the night and then this morning I put them into a bag. I think all in all, I just don't like kale. Horrible to admit, and hopefully I will find a way that I do like it, since it is one of the best sources of iron.

And we're off. Juice Fast - Day one

So today was a lot harder than I thought, not that my juices weren't great, it is just kind of strange not to eat anything, but be drinking fluids. What I mean by that is that fasting is not strange since as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I fast once a month. The difference here is that when I fast, for church, I abstain from food and liquid.
So just drinking juice, will take some getting used to. This was not something that I thought about before starting the fast. I think I was so excited to get started that I just jumped in with both feet. Which if you know me, that is not necessarily a bad thing since I can be a bit of a procrastinator :)

Ok so down to business.

Breakfast: Watermelon Juice.

Ingredients: 1/4 Watermelon.
Cut watermelon into 4 pieces. You now have enough for 4 days. Take your quarter and cut into smaller pieces. Not too small just small enough to fit into the juicer. Cindi Trunk reccomended that I leave the rind on to keep the juice from getting too sweet. I will admit, it seemed a little strange to me to leave the rind on but it was pretty good.

Push your pieces through the juicer
using the pusher. I will be using a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer. It is great, see how litle was left over from a 1/4 of a watermelon. They are on sale right now on the website buy one get one free, just pay shipping and handling on both items. This is a great sale and a fantastic juicer if you are in the market for one. Get a buddy to go in with you and spend less than $100 each. Below is a picture of my finished juice product. It is in a half gallon Tupperware Pitcher since I need to be able to take it with me to work.

Lunch: Mean Green Juice

Ingredients:

1 bunch of kale
4 stalks of celery
1/2 lemon
2 Granny Smith Apples
1 cucumber

Put through the juicer in the order listed. I messed up and left the Kale for last, so I had to add an extra Cucumber to get the Kale out. Since it is fiborous I reccomend that you juice it first so that the other ingredients have a chance to push it all through.

I have to admit that lunch was harder than breakfast. First of all I work 7am-3pm, so there aren't a lot of people at work when I get there, but once people started to arrive and make food in the kitchen which is only about 100 feet from my desk, my body started to want food to eat, not just juice.

The mean green is ok, but definately not my favorite. Here is a picture of it in a pink bottle. I realize that pink and green are not necessarily the best color combo, but this is what I had on hand. It may be a little hard to read but I had just over 24 ounces of juice.

So I got home from work about 3:45 and was feeling pretty good. I still had 16 ounces of my watermelon juice from this morning, so I drank it to tide me over until dinner.

Dinner: Popeye Juice

Ingredients:

4 ounces of baby spinach

1 pound of carrots peeled
1 mango pitted, but not peeled
1 cucumber, peeled

Yes I made up the name of this juice, and the recipe too. I figured I would get creative with the juice names, when they are my own creation. I just opened the fridge and pulled some stuff out to make juice with.

I got a wicked good deal on cucumbers last Saturday at the Flea Market huge cucumbers 2/$1. Cucumbers are a good additive to juice as you get a lot of juice out of just one. Spinach, Carrots and Mangoes on the other hand don't produce as much so I thought it would be a good combination of ingredients, plus I love carrot mango juice.

This was really good I enjoyed it a lot. I thought that the colors were pretty, of course I mixed it really well before drinking it. I just wish it could have held one of the colors. It was kind of brown after mixing it all together.

Here is a picture of it in my cup. Not the most appetizing color, but the taste was really good and lets face it that is what counts.

One more confession, not having had any food to chew today, I am tempted to eat that avacado in the fridge as it won't juice or last 10 days and the others I bought on Saturday were FABULOUS!

But, I am going to be strong and resist. I cut it up into pieces and placed it in a ziploc bag in the freezer to make ice cream once the juice fast is over. It will give me a treat to look forward to and get the temptation out of my face whenever I open the fridge.

A New Horizon

So starting tomorrow I am changing my life. I am trying to think of it as a change in diet instead of a diet. I have determined that I no longer need to be a meat eater. I have been considering this change for the last 6 months, but didn't have the motivation to take the leap until recently.

I am a little amazed at the reactions that I have recieved from friends and family members. Some have been helpful and postitive, while others think I am completely crazy and that it won't last.

The fact of the matter is that there are several diseases in my family history, the scariest for me are: Diabetes and Hypertension. I know without a doubt that without a change I too will be added to the list of family members to live with these diseases and have decided to cut it off at the pass. The number one question that I have been asked when I tell people that I am going to make a life change in diet, is why. There are 3 main things that have happened in the last 2 weeks that have solidified a thought that I have been knocking around in my head for the past couple of months.

1. My Dad was diagnosed Diabetic
2. I was in the library and came across a book called Veganist, since reading the book I have been amazed that I no longer want those items.
3. I saw a documentary called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead"

So taking into account all three of these things I am going to start with a 10 day juice fast. I am going to use the recipes from the "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" website and have signed up for a reboot account. Once I complete the juice fast I will start eating a vegan diet.

I have decided to blog about it to help me as well as friends and family members to process the change and stay motivated. Today I would say that my motivation levels are at a 10, lets hope I can keep it there.

Yesterday I stopped in and visited with my old Seminary teacher and good friend Cindi Trunk, she made the change to a raw vegan diet several years ago. I have looked up to her for many years and so it will come as no surprise that when I decided to make a change in diet that I chose to seek her advice and help. She is an inspiration to me in many ways and I can honestly say I will be getting some of my foods from her company Viva La Verde!

I don't want to say that I am going to update this daily, but I will get to it as I can and try to add in as many recipes as possible for anyone interested.